October

I Love October!

There is so much to do, and the weather is perrrrrfect.

We recieved a new swing set from grams and gramps P, and Zoey really wanted to help put it together. She was actually pretty helpful, I love it when kids reach the stage of understanding commands and actually want to do it!

On our way to the fair, we rode the "train".

On our way to fried heaven....

I forgot to take pictures of all the amazing fried foods we ate so I'll just list them for you:

-Fried Hot-Dog (aka corn-dog)

- Fried Buffalo Chicken, wrapped in a flap-jack and breaded with spices

-Fried banana, wrapped in a tortilla and smothered with deliciousness

-Fried chicken flautas

-Fried Pizza (seriously....not my favorite)

-Fried potatoes (aka french fries)

-and an Ice-cream cone (unfortunately NOT fried)

Feeding all the crazy weird animals at the petting zoo.

Again, not loving my new camera.

Riding the least puke-provoking ride we could find.

Cruising around looking for more food to eat, YUM!

So fun to walk around together and eat to our hearts content, thanks babe!

At the pumpkin patch with friends.....

Hay ride.

They had TONS of character cut-outs for the kids to see.

Backyardigans!!

And a few different bounce houses for the kids to play on.

This one was a giant pumpkin, they were loving it!

Once again attempting to get TWO smiling faces to look AT the camera, I have yet to capture it but I'll never stop trying!

Just playing around

Climbing the "death star" as we mothers like to call it.

We are so grateful for this beautiful weather and love to be outside this time of year.

Simple and Delicious Banana Bread

This recipe is my favorite, it only takes a few simple ingredients that you probably have in your kitchen right now! I'm sitting here waiting for a loaf to come out of the oven and I thought I would share this great recipe with you!

Cream Together:

1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup butter or shortening
2 Eggs

Then Add:

1 Cup sour cream or milk ( I ALWAYS use sour cream)
1 tsp baking soda
2 Cups flour ( I ALWAYS use 1 cup white, 1 cup wheat)
1 Cup mashed bananas (about 2-3)
(I ALWAYS add a pinch of cinnamon and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts)

Bake at 350* for 40-50 minutes in a greased loaf pan. Or makes about 18 muffins, bake for 20 minutes.

Delicious!!

Arboretum on my B-day!

So groupon gave me some free $$, don't ask me why I didn't question it, so I bought some tickets to the arboretum (completely free for me!), and decided to use them on my B-day because Stephen was able to take the day off!!

Earlier that day I opened my presents and was completely shocked to get a new camera!!! So I went a little snap happy with the kids and the pumpkins, but I obviously still need to figure a few things out with it because 50% of my pics were blurry or just slightly out of focus, bummer.

He's really good at saying "cheese" when I ask him to, but he's usually looking at the ground.

There were some serious pumpkins at this place, they were EVERYWHERE!

Oh and I usually plan fun family outdoor activities on the one particular day of the week that is bloody HOT, so we were really excited to find this hidden fountain, and we may have let Brooks go for a little swim...well almost.

Funny story.....the whole time Brooks thought we were at the Zoo and kept asking to go "find the animals".....we kept him from having a melt down by going along with this idea and kept searching for animals. We saw a few squirrels, some horses made out of hedges, and FISH (his favorite). Stephen and I had a good chuckle about it, but the poor kid didn't want to look at ANYMORE pumpkins, haha.

Happy Birthday to me, it was a really fun day-

complete with some time alone shopping AND a dinner/movie date!!! I'm so LOVED (a.k.a. spoiled).

Thanks Stephen for all your time and efforts, LOVE YOU!!